Tutorial 7
Keysight 34970A/34972A User’s Guide 339
Switching Frequency
Relay contacts heat up as they switch significant power. The heat is dissipated
through the leads and the body of the relay. As you increase the switching
frequency to near its maximum, heat cannot dissipate before the next cycle. The
contact temperature rises and the life of the relay is reduced.
Replacement Strategy
There are essentially two strategies that you can use for preventive maintenance
of the relays on the switching modules. The strategy that you choose depends
upon your application, the consequences of a relay failure in your system, and the
number of relay cycles during a measurement session.
The first strategy is to replace each relay as needed after it fails or becomes
erratic. This is suitable if you are switching higher loads on only a few relays on the
module. The disadvantage of this strategy is the inconvenience of continually
replacing relays as they near the end of their life at different times.
The second strategy is to replace all relays on the module or simply purchase a
new module as the relays near the end of their life. This strategy is best suited for
those applications where all relays on the module are switching similar loads. The
failure of several relays over a relatively short period of time may indicate
impending failures on other relays switching similar loads. This strategy decreases
the risk of failure during actual use at the expense of replacing some relays that
may have useful life remaining.
In both cases described above, you can use the 34970A/34972A Relay
Maintenance System to track and even predict relay failures.
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